Sunday, 31 July 2016

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores with bicycle kick on Manchester United debut

Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened his Manchester United account with a stunning bicycle kick as his new club beat Turkish side Galatasaray 5-2 in Gothenburg on Saturday.

A club debut for Ibrahimovic in his home country was already the headline story of the day, but Zlatan delivered for his watching fans with an acrobatic opening goal after just four minutes at the Ullevi Stadium.

TheTurkish side struggled to get going in the opening minutes of the game but equalised with their very first chance of the match as Sinan Gumus headed in Wesley Sneijder's excellent free-kick cross on 22 minutes.

The lively Bruma scored a classy second from the edge of the box (40) to give the Turkish club a half-time lead, but the game was turned on its head after the break.

Wayne Rooney's clever flicked finish (55) levelled the affair, and it was Rooney finding the net for a second time three minutes later after Marcus Rashford had won a penalty at the end of a sparkling run.

Stunned by the quick turnaround, Gala were dealt a knockout blow when Marouane Fellaini looped a top-class header over the goalkeeper from a floated Antonio Valencia cross on 62 minutes.

And United got better and better as the game went on, with Juan Mata providing the cherry on top with a poked finish at the end of a sublime team move on 74 minutes.

Manchester United were beaten 4-1 by Borussia Dortmund in the opening match of the International Champions Cup in Shanghai on Friday.

The Bundesliga side led 2-0 at the break after a goal from Gonzalo Castro (19) and a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang penalty (36).

Things did not improve after half-time for United as further strikes from Ousmane Dembele (57) and Castro (86), sandwiched in between a consolation effort by Henrikh Mkhitaryan against his old club (59), sealed the win for Dortmund.

The 22-year-old made 77 appearances for Valencia in two seasons after joining from Portuguese side Benfica.

He was part of Portugal's 2016 European Championship-winning side in France and becomes Barcelona's fourth signing of the transfer window after Galician midfielder Denis Suárez and French defenders Samuel
Umtiti and Lucas Digne .